Hey there.
Hold Fire works fine. All of the Unit Commands in the console seem to work fine, although I would prefer it if, after selecting a particular formation for my tanks or infantry, those units would maintain the formation I chose for them rather than defaulting to a Line formation which strings them out in a thin line. The Formation command should be like the Stance command, it should remain in effect until changed by the player.
Unable to get the campaigns up to a challenging difficulty playing the Americans, I broke down and am now playing the Leap of the Tiger campaign on Veteran Difficulty--I have never played the game on anything but the hardest setting. Why would I? As the PRK I have fought four battles now, attacking US forces in prepared defensive positions and have had about as easy a time of it as before--have not lost a battle, take light casualties. Half the time I do not require air support and almost never, unless fighting a very large force, do I need reinforcements. I have had a couple of surprises that could have turned out very badly for me, but luck seems to be on my side consistently. I was ambushed by two 57mm AT guns while engaging a Patton tank to my front. I lost one t-34, but destroyed the Patton and was able to withdraw my other tanks out of the AT guns' line of fire. Then it was a simple, if time-consuming, task to destroy them. The Koreans seem almost impervious to mortar fire, where the US and Russians seem to be very vulnerable to it. The Korean mortars are much more responsive than those of the US, and they seem more accurate.
Perhaps I am fighting green and demoralized troops--they are, as a general rule in rout from a previous battle. Half the time when I run into enemy tanks I am looking through my gun sights at their engine compartments as them mill around in circles. They stand no chance against my tanks which are creeping forward, using the terrain, crewed by veterans. As the Koreans, I am losing all respect for the M46 tank. I have been surprised by them several times, but even my SU 76mm SPGs knock out the Patton turrets with a couple of shots--these turrets seem particularly weak. And, of course, the fact that they have no machine gun ammo does not help matters for them. The T-34 85 in game seems like the ideal medium tank. Better armored than any of the competition, even the Patton, given the vulnerable turret, much faster and more maneuverable than the American tanks, with a gun that knocks them out with one or two shots.
The campaign is fun, but I have a very hard time believing that I will ever be seriously challenged. One mission worried me a little bit--I had to defend against an American armored assault and I had no tanks available. But by clever placement of my infantry and anti-tank guns I destroyed the attacking force and took insignificant casualties, not even losing a single AT gun. The Americans just blundered into my trap like a bunch of lemmings running off of a cliff. I am sure the AI is using tactics, but I hope I am not seeing the best tactics it is capable of, or the only truly daunting campaigns will have to be scripted, one shot deals.
Keep in mind, I cut my teeth on Men of War, where the game expects you to defeat an entire Company with tanks, emplaced defenses--the works--with a five man recon team. I prefer this of course, it is much more allied with reality. But it is proving just a tad too easy.
As a final note, I understand why you edited my post. This is an Official Forum and I suppose you cannot be seen to take sides in political things. However, to correct your word usage, what I said re North Korea does not qualify as Propaganda. An individual expressing his views purely as such is not Propagandizing. Propaganda is public speech or dissemination of media by an individual or a group which is patently biased and intended to sway opinion at large in a particular manner to achieve the ends of that individual or group. My opinions may be biased, as all are to some degree, but not patently so, and I have no ends, political or otherwise, to be served by them other than self-expression.
Here in the US, propaganda is an evil word, not to be used lightly, being associated as it is with regimes and groups that demonstrate a complete lack of scruple in their activities, and a total disregard for the truth. Regimes, as it happens, like North Korea.
